


Adeste Fideles

by BlackRose



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2018-11-11 00:04:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11137293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackRose/pseuds/BlackRose
Summary: Ardyn's purged of all the daemons, but survives.





	1. Chapter 1

((Regular text is Noctis' POV. _Italics is Ardyn's._ ))

It's a message from Gentiana that has us racing back to Lestallum at breakneck speed. The rumors lie, she gently insists; the Oracle yet lives. Her stewards secreted her out of Altissia before it fell. She was waiting for us at the Leville under their guard. 

As we soon found out, she wasn't the only one waiting for us.

A crowd had begun to gather in the plaza outside the hotel, seemingly circled up around something they were all edging towards to get a look at. As Gladio and Specs pushed through them we began to hear murmurs of, 'Fella's took bad, seems like,' and 'back up; whatever he's got could be catching,' and 'give him some room, honey; he don't look right,' among other things. The 'he' in question is none other than Ardyn, and he looks....bad. Worse than I've ever known a human could look, and still live. His skin is gray, his lips and eyelids a dusky bruise-color. He's panting like he's just run from one end of Cleigne to the other, a thin black ichor streaming from his mouth. He's sprawled on the cobbles but he keeps trying to get up, only to have a sort of seizure and fall back thrashing. Once, his eyes roll back in his head and the ichor streaks the white like blood. When he blinks them open again, the sclera are black and the irises a shocking piss-yellow. As my brothers and I approach he seems to focus on me, stabbing a shaking finger in my direction.

"Run, Noctis," he rasps out, "can't....keep holding them back..."

His articulate smarminess is gone; here is a man in his extremity. He's losing whatever grip he might have had on the part of himself that's still human, that hasn't been subsumed by the daemons. As the King of Lucis, the Light in the Darkness, I can't let that happen. 

"Just a little longer, " I instruct him, gesturing to Gladio help him up. The moment his left foot touches the ground his leg nearly buckles and he lists over against my Shield. Gladio braces him, helping him through the crowd. It soon becomes obvious something's gone horridly-wrong with his hip; the moment he tries to bear weight on that side he gives a sharp little hiss of a sob and his faces blanches further. Ignis is already in the lobby, having obtained us access to Luna's suite via the code phrase Gentiana gave. Fortunately there's an elevator; Ardyn couldn't have managed the stairs and for Gladio to scoop him up would be agony. 

The door slides open and immediately Umbra and Pryna bounce towards me. Luna's close behind them, and though this is a solemn occasion I can't resist folding her into my arms and just quietly inhaling the smell of the sylleblossoms she's tucked into her hair. A little reminder of home, I suppose, even in enemy territory. When we part she takes in the rest of the party and her eyes widen in shock. 

"Is that the Chancellor?!"

Ignis and Gladio are laying him out on the bed, where he lies shivering and gasping like a dying fish. 

"We found him like this. He tried to get me to run. Said he 'couldn't keep holding them back'...."

She moves to lean over him, her small hands gentle on his cheek and forehead. 

"He has the worst case of the Scourge I've ever seen. I'll try, but Noct, I'm not sure..."

I set a hand on her shoulder. 

"I'll help too. I may not be an Oracle, but destiny and stuff, right?"

That wins that sweet smile from her. She kisses my cheek and then nods to the Ring her dream-self gave me. 

"Use the Ring. If we can purify the daemons..."

"We stop the scourge."

Turning back to the others I tell them, "Watch the door. "Whatever happens in here---it needs to stay in here, got it?" Gladio, Iggy and Prompto all nod, the latter especially seeming eager to scramble away from Ardyn. Given recent events, I can't say I blame him. Luna's climbed onto the bed, carefully crawling over Ardyn's twitching body. He keeps rolling his head restlessly, face tight with pain. His eyes have begun to bleed that demonic slime down his face. As she strokes his sweaty bangs back his gaze flicks to her, briefly. In that instant the delirious sheen is gone; he seems to recognize her. Whatever he tries to say comes out as a feeble croak, followed by a spurt of black curdled bile. There's not much time. My Ring is shining; the room begins to be lit with a blue-white glow. Luna's own powers shine softly where she's channeling them into him. As the Kings of Lucis circle around us Ardyn arches, silently screaming. I don't even have to touch him to feel the heat rolling off his body. It's a tangible force, battering against me. The Scourge itself, trying to drive me back so it can continue to ravage its toy. It begins to rise from him, sinuous, a churning column of tormented souls. A fountain of poison that taints whomever drinks. They hiss and snap and flail their tentacles, burned by Luna's power from within and mine from without. More and more they froth forth, each wave rocking Ardyn like an electric current. It's too much; how can we ever overcome them? 

A strange ruby glow begins to envelop the bed. Ardyn's eyes are open, his arm flung out, red light spilling forth. His Armiger, opened. It seems to take everything he has to grasp the shaft of the Spear, cock his arm back, and send it hurtling into the surge of daemons. 

Even in his extremity, his aim is true; the monsters shriek and begin to be vaporized. Luna's power flares, mine rising to meet it, Holy fire to cleanse and purify. The room is shaking, doused in blinding blue-white. It's impossible to see, harder to breathe, and for a moment I'm convinced this is the end. 

And then----it stops. The light fades; the Ancient Kings return to their rest. Ardyn falls still and slack as the newly-dead. Luna crumples, breathing hard. I try to get up, to go to her, but exhaustion crashes over me like a tsunami and I know nothing more.


	2. Chapter 2

_My existence is pain._

_It is all I can even recall of my mortal days, now----facing off with the Scourge and drawing little flecks of agony into myself, that my people be healed. Such was the fate of the line of Lucis, the Caelumite Oracles. Sealing away the daemonic influence, that it not poison and taint the land and bring Night and ruin down on all. How fitting, then, that the very evil I had sought to contain should be my undoing._

_It is the daemons I have to thank for my lingering wounds----not all the little bastards would go quietly, or be absorbed placidly. I forget the shape, now, of the one that shattered my thighbone and wrenched my hip around within its socket. All that remains is a constant thrumming fire, sharpening to a bone-deep blade should I forget my careful gliding steps. That and the perpetual throbbing pulse of the ichor, the daemons surging and subsiding, hissing to get out. I am not enough for them. They want more and better meat than this battered old cage, they want to leak out and darken the whole of Eos into a shadowy playground. This they shriek in the pounding of my temples, the inward fire of my skin, the ragged breath that this damnable shell won't stop drawing in. I am....so, so very tired. Millennia I have fought them, contained them, but this vessel is breaking down. There are cracks in its armor, so to speak. By the time I reach Lestallum the drumming of the daemon-song has drowned out all other noise. I want so badly to stop, to rest, but the Scourge flares in my hip and sends fire down my leg at the very thought. Onward, then._

_The beasts snarl and burn and leak from my eyes as the scent of another Lucian royal reaches them. They're hungry, fairly slavering for the blood of the Crystal-Keepers' get. They lurch for control----I double over, retching like a poisoned dog, and what splatters out reeks of blood and decay. People are gathering, worried, a flock of sheep scenting the wolf. This wolf is rabid, I try to warn them, stay back, but the words gush forth slurred and gory with ichor. I can feel the stab of the True King's power as it comes nearer; my head spins and grows lighter, and quite suddenly I am staring up at the sea of blurred faces from the ground. My innards are ablaze, my bones edged in glass; I try to get to my feet but the ground bucks affrontedly and plunges me back into the dust. The sickly-sweet hum of True Power worms in around the daemons' chants and gibbering, and for a single instant my fevered mind clears, the pain-fog lifting. The King is here, but he is in danger! I must warn him!_

_"Run, Noctis," I manage to choke, that shocking-blue gaze drilling into mine, "I can't....keep holding them back..."_

_At first I'm not sure if he understands me----did I even speak? Was it just more chittering and bestial growls?---but then a response swims towards me, like a plucked bowstring:_

_"Just a little longer."_

_Before I can puzzle out the meaning, someone----that big brute with the scar; Gladius?--is raising me up, trying to set me on my feet. He doesn't know, of course; or perhaps he does, and walking on my bad leg is a piece of my judgement as the Accursed. Either way, I try to bite back the cries that want to shake free; I can't be sure if I give them tongue that my control will not slip. He helps hold me up, and then we're in an echoing place with goldish light that reels around me in a distinctly-nauseating fashion. The lobby of the inn. Yes. We're to meet the Lady Lunafreya. Will she pass the ultimate sentence and give me that final rest? I can only offer a silent, shriveled prayer as the King's Warrior helps me hobble into the elevator. I had thought that would be fine, just a little dip and sway, but it feels suddenly as though the floor of that box has dropped out beneath me and consciousness spools out into darkness._

_I come awake again in a dim and quiet room, a soft floral scent in the air. It's curiously-refreshing to breath something other than rot and daemon bile, though the cold pulse of an Oracle's power has the beasts stirring and rolling inside me. I can't hear what she's saying over the rushing blood in my ears, but her voice is soft, and her hands cool and soothing on my hot skin. A lower voice says something across the space, and then suddenly the King is at my side once more. I feel rather than see him; the creatures have bled everything nightwashed and again I try to warn them away. The daemons are restless; they don't like the waves of Power flowing off the Oracle and the King. Less still as that gentle touch guides it into me, searing us both from within. I want to shout for joy at the all-consuming blaze----by the Six, yes! Burn the little bastards out and end it, finally!_

_The daemons don't like that; they're riled up like I've never felt before. What would happen if, just for a moment, I let my hold slip? Squeals and thrashing is my answer; the beasts go surging out of me cackling and shrieking and lashing my body. What am I to them now but a broken doll? The seal is cracked; they are free. They swarm towards the ceiling, but the True King is ready for them. His own Power bludgeons them as they writhe and scream. They're trapped between the fire and the sword, but there are so many; even the Oracle and the King might be overwhelmed...._

_Unless..._

_I'm not sure at first if I can even do it, whether the Power yet remains to me to call forth the royal arms. But I gather up the tatters of my soul and reach out, praying to the Six that there's some little more, just a little---yes! The Armiger opens, and just as I left it, the Spear is swift to hand. My arm feels leaden, but all my anger, all my bitterness, every once of aching loneliness, and sorrow, and pain, guides the missile to its target. The Oracle's magic burns brighter as the daemons evaporate, the King's climbing to meet and strengthen it. The bed is rattling and shaking, the very walls trembling as if they'll come down and trap us all in the ruins. A tomb for the Line of Lucis?_

_But then. All is still. No sound remains but our own ragged breathing. A strange, sweet sensation washes over me, head to toe---a kind of soothing warmth, a physical easing. It's like sinking into a bath. All is quiet. True sleep. I am unmade._

_Time passes, though I am unsure how much. Dimly it comes to me that my leg ought to be screaming at me by now. Curious, I try to move it----nothing. No sensation but a kind of tingling coolness. I want to open my eyes but they are lead. The King and the Oracle are gone; I am alone here. Quiet. Peace. Is this the Afterlife I sought for so long? Endless isolation in exchange for surcease of pain? Why did I want this?_

_After another space of blankness, a voice----not the King's; smoother, accented like my own. Ah, I am not alone, in a hell of my own making! Someone's arm raises my shoulders and there is metal against my lips. A spoon, I suspect, but the night will not fall away long enough to let me see. My visitor feeds me some watery thing---broth, I think---then helps me lie back down. I suspect it will not stay in place for long but I hope he knows I appreciate the effort. This time I can feel the warmth of a blanket pulled over me, and a smile twitches my mouth as I let myself sink again._


	3. Chapter 3

A cold wet nose on my neck jolts me awake. Luna's soft giggle makes my heart soar. It wasn't a dream! She's really here, and safe! She turns over in my embrace to kiss me, gently shooing nosy little Umbra away.

"You're in his spot. At night he sleeps between me and the wall, and Pryna curls up at my feet."

Umbra pants good-naturedly as I slowly sit up, glancing around. We're on the single bed in one of the suite's conjoined rooms. Though both still clothed, someone has taken care to remove my boots and her slippers, and covered us with a blanket. That Specs--he just can't stop mothering, no matter the situation. Judging by the breakfast-type smells drifting in through the slightly-open door, he's already hard at work in the kitchenette making something for us all. For a moment all I can do is just hold her, my head atop hers. I want to engrave this moment into my memory; surely peaceful interludes like this won't last long nor be easy to come by.

"I missed you, Luna."

"I missed you too, my beloved. Fear not. Now that I've got you back I don't intend to be parted from you again."

I kiss her knuckles, stroking the back of her hand. 

" 'Till death do us part, I vow to honor and cherish you, Queen Lunafreya Nox Lucis."

Her sweet face brightens and she takes my hand in hers, clutching it to her heart. 

" 'Till we go together to join the Astrals, King Noctis Lucis Caelum, to you do I pledge my heart, my soul and my being. The Six will it so."

"The Six will it so," I confirm softly, sealing the vows with a kiss. 

Huh. If Umbra counts a witness, then technically we just got married. Can dogs legally witness a marriage?

As if in answer, the door opens wider and Pryna trots in, her little tail wiggling with doggie glee. 

Can she sense what's just happened? Luna reaches out to the little dog, who bounces over to nuzzle her hand and sniff noses with Umbra before trying to lead us to the door. I can't tell if she wants breakfast or is asking us to play. Luna gets up first, doing her braid up as she follows the dogs----I watch her walk away, shamelessly enjoying the view and then take my time stretching and getting up. The clock on the bedside table indicates it's nearly eight; it's been awhile since Iggy let me sleep in this long. I guess he realized purging daemons is exhausting. Speaking of which....where is Ardyn? Did he make it through the night? Surely my Crownsguard would have woken me to let me know if he'd passed----right?

Luna passes me a steaming mug of coffee as I go to join her at the counter---Iggy's on the other side, hard at work. Rice bowls today, it looks like, yes! He gives me a knowing smile as Luna leans in to kiss my neck and I pull her to my side, loving the way she melts into me. 

"Morning, Noct."

"Hey Specs. Has Ardyn been up yet?"

My advisor pauses in stirring the rice, his green eyes stormy.

"Not yet. His fever's broken, and I got him to take a little broth, but he hasn't been awake for more than a moment."

Luna looks up at me, compassion in her eyes. 

"We should look in on him, Noct. Just for a moment..."

I know that look. She'll worry until we do, so I nod and take her hand to lead her to the door of the suite's other bedroom. I knock once, but loudly. 

"Ardyn? You okay?"

A bleary grunt is the only response, so I quickly push the door open, making sure Luna stays behind me.

The room is dim, the Chancellor lying on his side. As I approach the bed his eyes flutter open, and I'm shocked again at their color. No longer a foul daemonic yellow, nor even his usual amber; his eyes instead were a deep starry indigo. 'The Mark of Lucis,' my father used to say. 

Like mine. 

He blinks a few times and then recognition dawns and he slowly sits up. His color is normal again and he's not struggling to breathe. He offers a wan, apologetic smile and inclines his head to us. 

"Your Majesty, Lady Lunafreya." 

The words are rusty and soft, as though something tore in his throat with all the screaming. Luna dares now to go and sweep his bangs back, palming his forehead. 

"How do you feel, Chancellor?"

It takes him a moment to respond; he's staring down at his hands, slowly opening and closing his fingers as though he's never seen them before. He looks up at her with a curiously-open, wondering expression. 

"I...feel wonderful, My Queen. It's....it's actually been years, more years than I can count, since.....since nothing hurt. I almost think I could..."

Pushing aside the blankets he maneuvers to sit on the edge of the bed. Biting his lower lip, he carefully gets to his feet, a flicker of fear in his eyes----the anticipation of pain as his bad leg takes his weight. But there's no catch; no stumble, no buckling. No pain. He takes a cautious step, then another. Then he turns back to us, eyes suddenly welling up, and sinks to his knees. 

"Your Majesties----King Noctis, Queen Lunafreya....to the both of you I owe my life. My freedom, from those foul beasts. I have....done so much evil, hurt so many. I cannot say enough to apologize for it all. If....if it will be suitable atonement, I place my life in your hands. Blood for blood. "

It takes me a moment to process what he's saying. After everything, he still thinks we want to kill him?

"Get up. We're not doing this here. Not now. We'll decide your fate later, but for now breakfast is ready. Let's go."


	4. Chapter 4

_I'm not sure what to expect at first as I follow Noctis and the Queen out into the main area of the suite, the light momentarily blinding me after the darkened bedroom. In fact, much is immediately overwhelming to me---the smells of whatever that Tenebraean fellow with the spectacles is cooking, the hum and whirr of a kind of forced-air heating system running unseen in the walls somewhere, even the silken scrape of carpet beneath my boots. It's as if my senses had been deadened for these countless centuries, and now suddenly the veil has been lifted in a disorienting rush. Queen Lunafreya's hand on my arm is a blessing, grounding me as my heart begins to flurry. Her eyes are full of compassion and worry for me as she guides me to take slower and steadier breaths. Even Noctis has turned to us now, standing between the two of us and the others gathered in the room. Almost, I think, shielding me with his body. His expression is hard to read, but he reaches out and clasps my shoulder in what seems a comforting gesture._

_"It's okay. Take your time."_

_I fight down the urge to laugh at that, for what else have I *but* time? Still, it helps to take a moment and get my bearings. Color, that is among the first things I notice. I am not sure when over the years my vision begun to dull into monochrome, but every shade of the spectrum is now screamingly-bright. Noctis, I realize with a sudden start, has deep-blue eyes, almost indigo. Not gray, as I assumed. His friend the MT-escapee, he is a sunny blonde with little red freckles. The man at the stove---Ignatius? His eyes are a piercingly-clear jade and his shirt an outrageous purple with Coeurl-pattern in the weave. I feel I should ask where he got it; something of the like would make a striking addition to my usual attire. The scarred warrior is olive-skinned, darker-complected than the rest of them. They are all watching me as the King and Queen lead me to the table. Spectacles nods a greeting and doles out a portion of whatever it was he was making into a bowl for me. The little blonde is skittish as a kicked pup and almost reflexively moves his chair to be further away from me. I can only smile and offer him raised palms in a show of harmlessness. Scar-Eye is distinctly unimpressed, if the derisive grunt he offers is anything to go by. Spectacles brings everyone's food to the table and, after adding a leaf to expand the surface area, they all sit, Lunafreya and Noctis side-by-side, the Queen beside me, the Shield and gunner across from me, and Spectacles himself on the table's long axis. No one seems to know what to say, so I busy myself examining my bowl. The steam rising from it carries a delicious smell, and suddenly I'm alarmed by a painful, rolling cramp twisting my insides. The Queen hides a smile._

_"It must feel strange, to be hungry again after so long."_

__

_Of course.....that's what this is. It's been so long since I was mortal, and required nourishment, that I forgot what it felt like. It's a most unpleasant sensation, and I'm only too eager to take up the provided utensils and dig into the food. Rice, I recognize rice; it grew in specially-contrived paddocks carved into the hillsides of Solheim. A system of pipes collected snowmelt from higher up the mountains and channeled it down to keep the fields wet and fertile. There's meat as well, some sort of poultry if I'm not mistaken, and eggs. Rich and delicious, probably nourishing also. Scar-Eye laughs outright as he watches me polish off my bowl._

_"He must be related to you, Noct, never seen anyone else that liked these so much."_

_Noctis grins, wiping stray grains of rice from his mouth._

_"He's got good taste, that's all."_

_The failed MT (Pronto? Primrose?) is studying me now, curious._

_"Actually.....he does kinda look like you. Different hair, but your eyes are the same...."_

_That's where he's wrong; my eyes have always been a dull amber, like early sunrise. Still, I suppose I ought to enlighten them a bit, as a display of good faith._

__

_"Indeed, perhaps I never properly introduced myself. My name is Ardyn Lucis Caelum."_

_Spectacles looks distinctly shocked. It's amusing to see in one normally so-reserved and formal._

_"The Founder King?!"_

_My smile is perhaps more bitter than I intended._

_"Alas, no. Would that I were. That would be my dear younger brother, Izunia. It is his name I've been using as an...alias of sorts, for a while now. It seems the Empire is a bit weak on their history. The history of Solheim, anyhow."_

_Now it is the Queen's turn to look shocked._

_"Solheim.....are you saying it was real? It wasn't simply a myth?"_

_"Was, and is still, probably, somewhere under millenia of rubble and ruin. My brother and I were born there, and lived most of our lives in its mountains. It was not until Izunia was grown, that the Gods saw fit to bless him and bid him set out into the world to found a little outpost settlement he named for our bloodline, Lucis. I was at his side as an attendant, bearing a gift of my own---the power to heal the sick and injured. I suppose I'd have been called an Oracle today, though I'm given to understand that nowadays that's a feminine calling, yes?"_

_She nods, and the others gesture for me to continue, listening in apparent fascination._

_"It was.... rough going, in the early days. Lucis was but a small prairie settlement, scarce large enough to be called a town. Clean water was hard to come by, and to make matters worse a plague began to crop up amongst the travelers crossing the desert and spread quickly to the civilians. They called it Soluxbane, or Starblight, and no one knew yet that it could create daemons. I was desperate to help our people---so many dying, in such pain! So, in a moment of foolish, grandiose hubris, I decided I would try to take the scourge unto myself---surely, my Six-granted gift could somehow neutralize or dispel the plague!"_

_"It took me more than a year, to realize how very badly wrong I was."_


End file.
